stAmInA Dragonknight

PvE DPS GUIDE

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Dragonknight is heavily geared towards Flame and Poison Damage, mostly delivered as damage over time. Its long-lasting ultimate makes it especially dominant in fights or burst phases that last 20-40s, and its balance of single target and AOE pressure perform extremely well in multi-target fights. As ESO’s original tanking class, its toolkit is stacked with buffs, debuffs and other utilities, and its powerful ‘sticky’ DOTs are ideal for keeping up the Touch of Z’en debuff in organised groups.

KEY PASSIVES

Burning and Poisoned are powerful DOTs, and Dragonknights apply them more easily than other classes. An extra 40% is a massive boost, making these status effects a major source of damage.

This 5% bonus is significant since it applies to most of the class abilities we use for damage. It also boosts other Flame & Poison damage sources such as Blockade of Fire, Poison Injection and Runecarver.

Minor Brutality is the unique buff provided by this class. When there are no other Dragonknights around, you will be expected to keep it active. This passive is also a nice source of extra ultimate.

Depending on your ultimate for sustain can be a disadvantage, but the ability to store up large amounts of resources (including Health) for when you need them can also be extremely useful.

GEAR

Boss Setups


Relequen + Runecarver + Master's Bow + Zaan

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Zaan's Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Zaan's Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Runecarver's Blaze Gloves Divines Stamina
Waist Runecarver's Blaze Sash Divines Stamina
Legs Relequen's Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Runecarver's Necklace Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Runecarver's Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Runecarver's Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Relequen's Bow Precise Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - -
Back Bar Main Hand Master's Bow Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

Ansuul + Azureblight + Maelstrom Inferno + Ur-Mage

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Ansuul's Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Azureblight Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Azureblight Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Azureblight Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Azureblight Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Azureblight Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Ansuul's Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Ansuul's Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Ansuul's Dagger Nirnhoned Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand Ansuul's Dagger Precise Poison
Back Bar Main Hand Maelstrom Inferno Staff/Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

Alkosh + Z'en + Kilt + Encratis

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Encratis's Behemoth Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Encratis's Behemoth Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Jack of Alkosh Divines Stamina
Hands Bracers of Alkosh Divines Stamina
Waist Z'en's Sash Divines Stamina
Legs Harpooner's Wading Kilt Divines Stamina
Feet Boots of Alkosh Divines Stamina
Necklace Z'en's Necklace Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Z'en's Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Z'en's Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Dagger of Alkosh Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Dagger of Alkosh Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand Z'en's Greatsword/Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

Venomous Smite + Order's Wrath + Ur-Mage

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Order's Wrath Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Venomous Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Venomous Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Venomous Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Venomous Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Venomous Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Ring of the Order's Wrath Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Ring of the Order's Wrath Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Dagger of the Order's Wrath Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Dagger of the Order's Wrath Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand Inferno Staff of the Order's Wrath Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

Relequen + Sentinel + Master's Bow + Zaan

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Zaan's Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Zaan's Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Highland Sentinel Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Highland Sentinel Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Highland Sentinel Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Highland Sentinel Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Highland Sentinel Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Relequen's Necklace Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Relequen's Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Relequen's Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Relequen's Bow Precise Flame
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

Do not use just ONE setup. Adjust for different groups and encounters.

  • Trial set: Relequen remains excellent for sustained, single target damage, but Ansuul, Null Arca and Whorl offer greater flexibility.

  • Secondary set: Runecarver works great against single or multiple targets, but Azureblight should outperform against 3+ stacked enemies, and especially if others in your group are also using the set.

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 1-2 x Light is recommended, but adjust the Medium-to-Light ratio depending on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

Which back bar is best?

The Master’s Bow offers the highest single target damage potential, while The Maelstrom Bow boosts your cleave damage.

The Maelstrom 2H and Maelstrom Inferno are more or less interchangeable. The deciding factor is usually SUSTAIN, with a 2H taking pressure off our Magicka whilst offering higher single target damage (the Maelstrom 2H also buffs Azureblight explosions). An Inferno staff with Blockade of Fire covers a larger ground area, is buffed by Encratis and takes pressure off our Stamina.

A Dual Wield back bar is also perfectly viable.

MUNDUS BOON: THE THIEF

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Backstabber - Master-at-Arms / Thaumaturge - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when all necessary penetration and crit buffs/debuffs are provided.

Master-at-Arms is a sensible default for this class, but with a single target Bow setup take Thaumaturge instead to boost your DOTs.

Use Fighting Finesse and/or the Kilt to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). In fights where your AOEs and DOTs rise as a proportion of your total DPS against key targets, you can slot slot Biting Aura and/or Thaumaturge to boost these damage types instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Braised Rabbit With Spring Vegetables
or
Garlic Cod With Potato Crust
or
Sticky Pork and Radish Noodles

Increase Max Health by 5395 and Max Stamina by 4936 for 1 hour.

Food > Ragout
Small Game, Greens, Seasoning
Fish, Potato, Garlic
White Meat, Radish, Flour

Tri Restoration Potion
or
Essence of Health

Restore 8369 Health, 7582 Magicka, and 7582 Stamina immediately.

Grants Major Fortitude, Major Intellect, and Major Endurance which increase your Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by 30% for 36.3 seconds.

These effects are scaled based on your level. (45 second cooldown)

Bugloss + Columbine + Mountain Flower
Lady's Smock + Columbine + Mountain Flower
Bugloss + Columbine + Dragonthorn

+

These are recommended for typical group content. Alternatives include:

Maximum Damage: Max-level Vegetable recipes for Stamina
Maximum Sustain: Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice for Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Sustain & Survivability: Dubious Camoran Throne for Health + Stamina + Stamina Recovery

Candied Jester’s Coins for Stamina + Magicka Recovery

Essence of Weapon Power for Major Brutality + Savagery + Endurance
Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(expensive and rarely needed)

abilities

Front Bar: Barbed Trap, Flames of Oblivion, Lethal Arrow, Venomous Claw, Molten Whip, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Poison Injection / Venom Arrow, Eruption, Engulfing Flames, Scalding Rune, Endless Hail, Standard of Might

IGNEOUS WEAPONS

Venom Arrow grants us Major Brutality & Sorcery, essential damage buffs which we don’t get from potions since we use tri-restoration potions wherever possible. You can use Degeneration in the same way, but in trials you may be expected to run Igneous Weapons if not other Dragonknights are present. If Major Brutality & Sorcery are already provided, this becomes a flex spot.

ROTATION

This Bow setup is excellent for single target damage, and one of the most fun ways to play Stamina Dragonknight. The cast time on Lethal Arrow does prevent smooth bar swapping, but since we have Whip slotted for Seething Fury we can cast that - either when we need to bar swap or when it is at 3 stacks for 60% more damage. Adding Talons or Acid Spray to the rotation can give it an easier, repetitive 5s structure, but either ability will be difficult to sustain over long fights.

We can keep things quite static and simple by recasting our DOTs exactly as shown below, with only Oblivion and Hail being recast dynamically. However, we should always try to optimise DOT recasts according to our comfort level. The priorities are Injection/Arrow alongside Eruption every 20s, followed by Hail, Trap, our class DOTs and finally Rune.

Open with Oblivion, Hail, Rune and Trap, and drop Standard immediately after Injection/Arrow or once all your DOTs are ticking.

You can recast Oblivion early to keep up Seething Fury stacks. Drop Standard the instant it is ready, but save the last one for the final 20s of the fight (use Dawnbreaker if it is not ready). Keep Trap and Injection/Arrow rolling until the end and in the last 5-6s spam Lethal Arrow until the target is dead.

Zenkosh

Stampede and Blockade are interchangeable - they both last 15s so the rotation does not change.

Try to use Talons every 5s if sustain allows - it’s very powerful even against single targets, and in crowded fights it deals insane amounts of damage. If Magicka sustain is super tight, skip some Talons casts near the start of the fight, swap Eruption to Caltrops or just drop Talons.

Recast Stampede and Eruption every 15s. Maintain the rest of your DOTs as dynamically or statically as you like (dynamic is better for both DPS and for Stagger uptimes). For perfect Stagger uptimes throughout the fight, leave no more than 3 seconds between Stone Giant casts.

Prebuff with Oblivion, Cloak and Trap.

trash setups

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Prior Thierric's Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Prior Thierric's Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Hands Burning Spellweave Gloves Divines Stamina
Waist Burning Spellweave Sash Divines Stamina
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Feet Boots of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Dagger of Sul-Xan’s Torment Nirnhoned Disease/Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Dagger of Sul-Xan’s Torment Precise Absorb Stamina
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -
SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Arm Cops of Sul-Xan's Torment Divines Magicka
Chest Azureblight Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Azureblight Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Azureblight Belt Divines Magicka
Legs Azureblight Guards Divines Magicka
Feet Azureblight Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan's Torment Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan's Torment Bloodthirsty Weapon/Spell Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Dagger of Sul-Xan’s Torment Nirnhoned Disease/Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Dagger of Sul-Xan’s Torment Precise Absorb Stamina
Back Bar Main Hand Maelstrom Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • Sul-Xan will not work well if your group takes long pauses between trash pulls; swap to Ansuul or another trial set.

  • 1-3 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Slimecraw for a Stormfist, Kra’gh or Skoria 1-piece, depending on what you need.

  • For big nukes, you can use Mechanical Acuity & Balorgh with Spellweave or Elf Bane.

  • If you’re still missing penetration, use Sharpened weapons on the front bar, equip more Light Armor pieces or slot Force of Nature.

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best CPs depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently.

Patch Notes

Fallen Banners (Update 45)

  • Various Craft Champion Points changed to be always active (not slottable).

Update 44

  • Banner Bearer Grimoire introduced.

  • Azureblight set reworked. Base damage reduced, scaling damage per target massively increased.

  • Golden Pursuits and 2-sided Battlegrounds introduced.

  • Imperial City Keys and Vaults system replaced with Imperial Fragments and merchants.

Dragonknight

  • Cauterize changed to target up to 4 allies, tick rate increased, healing ticks reduced by 33%.

Update 43

  • Curation added to dungeon-specific Undaunted Monster set shoulder coffers.

  • Undeath passive damage reduction lowered to 15% from 30%.

  • New arenas, bosses, Verses and Visions added to Infinite Archive.

  • Various Scribing tooltips tweaked, Affix Script compatibility increased.

  • Home Tours introduced.

Dragonknight

Gold Road (Update 42)

  • Scribing and Skill Styling systems introduced

  • Lucent Echoes, Null Arca and Highland Sentinel sets added.

  • Gradual Ravage Health potions fixed to not trigger item sets.

  • Various damage reduction effects fixed to be multiplicative rather than additive.

  • Mages Guild passive Everlasting Magic duration increased changed from 20% to 2s.

  • Delay added to Rush of Agony proc, range increased from 10m to 12m.

  • Various Werewolf abilities tweaked to increase its general effectives in PvE.